Richard Madox (11 November 1546 – 27 February 1583)

Oxford DNB The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

was an

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explorer, who served as a chaplain aboard

Edward Fenton Edward Fenton (died 1603) was an English navigator, son of Henry Fenton and Cicely Beaumont and brother of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. He was also a publisher of diaries and journals. Biography He was a native of Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire ...

's voyage headed for the

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and

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in 1582. He died during the voyage, but left a diary which has been republished and is preserved in the

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Biography

Madox was born on 11 November 1546 in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

, one of three brothers. He initially attended

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and then became an undergraduate at

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

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, when he was 20. After receiving his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

, he was appointed a fellow of All Souls College, graduating with an MA in 1576.Feingold, Mordechai ''The Mathematicians' Apprenticeship: science, universities and society''. Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 159. He was ordained as a priest five years later. Madox, along with John Walker, was appointed to the position of

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

's ''Galleon Leicester'', which set sail on 1 May 1582. Fenton was intending to sail around the

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to the

and

. Madox died on the voyage, on 27 February 1583, while the vessel was near Vitória,

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Diary

Madox started writing his diary, which is now preserved in the

, on 1 January 1582.Boas, F. S. (1966)), ''University Drama in the Tudor Age'', p. 160. During the voyage on the ''Galleon Leicester'', Madox resorted to writing in a

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

, and then in

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and

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, in order to ensure his diary remained secret.James Fenton, 'All at sea: James Fenton on a seaman's secret diary', ''

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'', 10 May 2008. As well as recording events on board, his diary during the voyage described various examples of flora and fauna which he encountered. He also included illustrations.Games, Alison (2008-07-15). ''The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560–1660'', p. 243. The last entry in Madox's diary, a comment on the weather, was written on 31 December 1582. His diary was published by the

Hakluyt Society The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishin ...

in 1976, edited by Elizabeth Story Donno, under the title ''An Elizabethan in 1582: The Diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madox, Richard 1546 births 1583 deaths 16th-century English explorers 16th-century English diarists 16th-century English male writers Writers from Shropshire Alumni of All Souls College, Oxford English chaplains